Odd networking via Samba?

Mon Nov 25 15:37:33 CST 2002

I've run into this problem before at home.  I use a Win2k laptop and
occasionally need to transfer files with my win98 box at home.  I had
everything set up correctly from an IP standpoint, and I couldn't figure
out why I couldn't see the Win2k box.  I even tried turning on other
network services, and still couldn't get things to pick up.  Finally, I
tried going the other way with the connection, and the Win98 box prompted
me for a password.  That turned out to be the root of the problem.

If you log into your 98 box the very first time without a password, it
assumes that you don't generally need one, and it just sits there as an
island.  What I would guess that you need to do is to log off of the 98 box
and log back in with a valid username for the shares on the NT box.  That
should let you see the shares and connect.

If you are doing that and still can't connect, you can try mapping directly
to the shares forcing the use of IP.  Win9x doesn't browse very well
through IP unless you have netbios enabled, but that doesn't mean that IP
doesn't work just fine.  Assuming you can ping your NT box, you can map to
the share through the Explorer "map network drive" window, but you force it
to use IP for the connection by entering the IP address instead of the
servername using a syntax like "\11.22.33.44shared".

If that doesn't work either, let me know, and I have some other ideas.

As a footnote, Win9x handles some aspects of security differently if you
don't enter a password for a username than if you do.  If you don't have a
password, some things get flaky.  I would always recommend at least a
one-character, non-space password anytime you are plugging a Win9x box into
an NT network, even if you aren't worried about security at all, just
because it makes things run more smoothly.

Hope this helps.

- Kevin

                    Bradley Miller                                                                  

                    <bradmiller at dslonramp.       To:     kclug at kclug.org                            

                    com>                         cc:                                                

                    Sent by:                     Subject:     Odd networking via Samba?             

                    owner-kclug at marauder.i                                                          

                    lliana.net                                                                      

                    11/23/2002 06:35 PM                                                             

One minor complaint I've had about my networking is some issues with seeing
other boxes on my Network.  My 95/98 boxes can't see my NT box but I can
see them just fine.  I was playing with the Samba install on the Mandrake
8.2/500Mhz PC and could see my NT box perfectly.  In fact everything about
it logging in and seeing PC's on my network works perfectly.  Very strange
. . . time to break out the config file from it and see if can't repair my
other boxes.

Another funny little story . . . I was playing one night with my older P200
"I gotta learn Linux" workstation that has been by my main PC for the past
3 years.  I open up the print tool and play around with it and had it
printing on my network in like 5 minutes to my laser sitting on my Win98
box in the other room.  I never could get it to print before because it
would never log onto my NT box for the laser when it was sitting there.  Go
figure . . . now I can actually print without having a printer of the
thing.  Ugh.  So many discoveries, so little time.

-- Bradley Miller